1. Field
The present disclosure relates to a catheter patch applicator assembly and method of use thereof, and more particularly, to a catheter patch and applicator assembly that permits single-hand sterile application of a catheter patch to a patient's skin for lubricating catheters, as surgical dressings, and/or as wound dressings while keeping fingers away from the insertion site and the patient's skin.
2. Description of Related Art
Surgical dressings, wound dressings, and catheter-securing patches for use with catheters or other percutaneous devices, such as feeding tubes, orthopedic fixation pins, or electrical leads, for example, are common in the prior art. The primary concern with transdermal access into the body is the prevention of infection and irritation to the insertion site of the percutaneous device.
For example, long-term care and vascular access catheters are increasingly used to provide indefinite access to a patient's blood vessels for drawing blood or administering medication. The placement of a catheter often relieves a patient of having to endure multiple sticks of a needle once an intravenous (IV) site is established and preserves the integrity of blood vessels, for example, by providing a single site for prolonged access to the patient's circulatory system. The significant increase in the use of long-term catheterization of patients, including in a wide array of settings, such as hospitals, nursing homes, and home health care, for example, creates even greater need for the prevention of irritation to the skin and microbial intrusion into the insertion site.
Each time a dressing is applied to stabilize or protect the insertion site, there exists an opportunity for foreign contamination of the insertion site via the fingers and hands of a technician or medical provider, for example. Long-term applications require repeated changing of the dressing around the percutaneous puncture site. Each time the dressing is changed, an opportunity arises for bacteria or some other foreign contaminant to infect or otherwise irritate the puncture or wound site.
Medical practitioners are trained persistently on the methods of sterile application of a dressing in order to lower the risk of infection or contamination to a percutaneous insertion site. Unfortunately, the manner in which dressings or patches of the related art are designed and/or applied often requires the use of both hands to hold and apply a dressing to a catheter site, or the placement of fingers near the insertion site to hold and/or apply the dressing or patch. This significantly increases the likelihood of contamination of a sterilized IV site or the sterilized patch itself by the hands and/or fingers.
There exists a need in the field for a catheter patch applicator that permits the efficient application of the patch around percutaneous devices of varied sizes while helping keep the hands and/or fingers from contacting the catheter patch and/or away from the insertion site and the patient's skin.